Easing rail congestion still on track?
Thursday, February 7, 2008 2:46 PM PST
By Stephanie Mathieu
Printable version
E-mail this articleAs talk of climate change and innovative transportation solutions grows, the state is working with Kalama to make way for a speedier passenger rail system by getting grain cars out of the way.
The project, which would create a third rail solely for freight trains between Kelso and Martin’s Bluff, would relieve train congestion, which is thick near Kalama. There, trains with more than 100 cars come and go delivering grain from the Port of Kalama’s two grain elevators, and when they return to the main track, they slow down other cars, including passenger trains.
“If the train’s sitting there, nobody’s moving,” said Rosemary Siipola transportation manager with the Cowlitz Wahkiakum Council of Governments. And with passenger trains, she said, “you’ve got to have a schedule you can maintain.”
The entire 18-mile stretch between Kelso and Martin’s Bluff, north of Woodland, could take decades to complete, Siipola said. The Kalama portion of the project is in planning stages and construction is expected to begin in 2013.
Up to 60,000 rail cars pass through the port each year, said Mark Wilson, Port of Kalama’s manager of development.
“We’re actually a lot bigger ... exporter than most people realize,” he said. “It’s not unusual to actually find trains parked on the main line waiting to come into the grain terminals,”
Although transportation officials appear enthusiastic about the project, there had been much uncertainty about whether it even would happen.
Last year, the Legislature’s $7.5 billion budget set a two-year spending plan for roads, rails and ferries. The budget also makes long-term projections of when other projects will be funded. Projects become more tentative the further they are in the future.
Lawmakers authorized the third-rail project in 2003 as part of the “Nickel Package,” a statewide transportation plan funded by raising the gas tax 5 cents a gallon. Barring future legislation, the tax will top off at 37.5 cents per gallon in 2008.
When the estimated cost of the new line came in at whopping $459 million, the state dropped the project. Transportation planners developed a more modest plan to add the rail equivalent of passing lanes for trains.
Faced with soaring costs on transportation projects throughout the state, Gov. Chris Gregoire in December of 2006 proposed delaying some projects, including the Kelso to Woodland rail improvements.
The House followed suit, but the Senate insisted on issuing additional bonds to keep the rail and other Nickel Package projects on schedule.
Siipola said that one strategy to secure more project money is for private freight companies, such as BNSF Railways (formerly Burlington Northern Santa Fe) proposes projects that would help government plans for high-speed passenger rail programs.
There are tax breaks for rail companies that significantly help Amtrack Cascades passenger services, Siipola said.
“We’re not the only place in the country that needs rail improvements,” Siipola said. “There’s a lot of competition for very scarce dollars.”
Still, she said, “The state is committed to the project.”
According to the state Department of Transportation, freight and passenger train traffic has increased in the Kelso-Longview area, and that traffic is often coming from the Port of Longview.
“We are a real hub down here for rail,” she said. Many local ports want rail connections, she said.
2005 marked the completion of a 10-year, $21 million rail project that linked the Port of Longview to BNSF main lines that avoids road crossings. The industrial rail corridor boosted the capacity of the port to handle 100 or more rail cars at a time.
Another project to look forward to farther down the line, Siipola said, is a $100 million project to improve roadways and rail along Industrial Way. But that project is still in the very early stages, and doesn’t have a funding source yet, she said.
“We’ve got to build more capacity for freight,” Siipola said.
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